Case Studies in South African Public Administration: A Review of Masters Dissertations from 2005 to 2012

Abstract

The study, on which this article reports, applied a conceptual framework to obtain an integrated and deeper understanding of case studies in South African Public Administration. For this purpose, a systematic content analysis and review was done of 23 masters dissertations that were completed between 2005 and 2012. The aim of the analysis was to understand the appropriateness of case studies for contributing to scientific knowledge. Following the application of the conceptual framework in the analysis of the selected dissertations, this article reports on the selection strategies, case study designs, research purpose, nature of data collection, nature of data analysis and the expected outcomes of typical case studies. This article contributes to the literature on Public Administration research methodology by enhancing an integrated and deeper understanding of, firstly, the concept and phenomenon ‘case study’ and, secondly, the appropriateness of case studies for theory building in Public Administration.